Denck became rector of St. Sebaldus School in Nürnberg in 1523 but was expelled from the city as a heretic two years later by the predominantly Lutheran city council. Denck joined the Anabaptists soon afterward, was baptized in Augsburg, and became their leader there.

Influenced by the mysticism of the German theologian Johann Tauler, he dissented from the Lutheran belief in the primacy of Scripture and maintained that through his love of God an individual could acquire knowledge of God’s will. Denck opposed violence and called instead for a spiritual reformation of the heart. Forced to wander from city to city, he eventually died of the plague. His works include Von der wahren Liebe (1527; “On True Love”) and a German translation of the Old Testament Prophets (1527).

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